Beans, Beans the Magical Fruit! (:

Marko was 10 months old when I got pregnant with Tita, so that means that they aren't even a year and a half apart....so yes, I clearly remember having TWO babies at the same time.  And it was very tough.  My Gosh was it ever tough!  Even going to the grocery store for something simple like a gallon of milk was an EVENT that I had to plan (and PACK) for!!!   In fact, any woman that's been fortunate enough to be in THAT club will vouch for me.  Which club you ask?  The 2 babies under 2 club.  Again, I had 2 babies under 18 months!!  Wow.  Not bad for someone that wasn't supposed to ever have children! (:
Up until the kids were maybe 6 and 7 (I'm not kidding!)... Everyone STILL called them "The Babies."  They had been known as the babies ever since....well, since they were ....babies!
Well, now--my babies are growing up.  Too darn fast for my liking.  It's tough for me to give them more and more independence.  The only thing I can say as far them growing up is that they help a lot more around the house than before, of course.  Take today, for instance...I was busy making dinner and you probably know by now that being Latina means one thing:  You cook (a lot!) and many meals include the ever-present side of either rice or beans and tortillas.  It's a MUST!
Well, Tita has learned to make a pot of beans all by herself!  And they end up exactly the way I have always made them.  I am so proud of her!
Here's Tita sorting through the beans to pick out the bad ones:

 She's so focused!

 Here's a picture of the raw beans right before she rinsed them:

 And these are the ingredients you need to make authentic Mexican beans.  You need garlic (fresh or powder), cooking oil, salt and of course, water!  You can cook them in a pan over the stove, a crock-pot or a roaster (which is what we use.)

 She rinsed the beans really really good and put them in a strainer.  She ended up putting in about 3 pounds of beans to cook in the roaster, along with 3 1/2 pitchers of hot water, 1/4 cup of oil, 1  1/2 tablespoons of garlic and salt to taste (for us it was about the same as the garlic salt.)  She then stirred it all up and covered the roaster.

 She set the roaster at 450 degrees and let them cook for about 4 hours.

They're done!  And my whole house smelled so yummy with the aroma of fresh cooked beans! Mmmmmm

 Here's little Betty Crocker herself!

My little helper.  I am so proud of her!  I'm excited to show her all the goodies I know how to make.  And she loves cooking too!  I tell you.... it's in her blood (:

Oh and about the beans:  You must let them cool all the way down before putting them into the refrigerator!  I usually just put them in the refrigerator in a large plastic bowl with the lid.  You can warm them up whole, just the way they are and eat them with a spoon, or you can heat the amount you need in a pan and mash them up for some yummy tostadas.  If you like them refried...like really refried: heat the amount you need in a pan with some oil, mash them up and you will see how they kind of start to dry up.  They are ready when you go to stir them and ALL OF THE BEANS stick to the spoon!  Warmed up any of these ways is really good for breakfast with eggs and potatoes, with green chile and tortillas.

In an upcoming post I will show you how to make the best Mexican rice EVER!  (I'm not kidding!)....or maybe tortillas...or fideo! .......hmmmm maybe my blog will suddenly turn into a COOKING blog!  I'm really kidding.  I do love to cook, but I am not disciplined enough to keep up a cooking blog.  Maybe someday!  I'll let you know (:

Oh and I was bummed because Marko was busy outside helping his dad cut the grass!  It was his first time using the lawnmower, but since I was busy cooking, I wasn't able to go out and take some pics of him...You can bet I'll be out there next week when he cuts it again!  The yard looks great and I am so proud of him!
One more thing....I have a very important appointment tomorrow.  I can't reveal what it is yet, but it's BIG. HUGE!  And no, it's not what you're thinking!

So what do you think?  I really have no idea how many cooking blogs there are out there already, and if one more is really necessary.  Maybe I'll just start one so that all of my recipes are actually WRITTEN down somewhere!  I think that is what I'll do.  For my kids/grandkids/great-grandkids.   I really wish someone had taken the time to write down all of my mother-in-law's recipes..

Have a rIdIcUlOuSlY fAnTaStIc Tuesday!